Richard Garriott. Lord British. I remember reading those names when Ultima Online was first announced, about the time when massively multiplayer games first began to come into realization. The names, both describing the same person, are synonymous with boundary-pressing game design and personal adventure. Professionally he's the founder of Origin Systems, the creator of the Ultima series, the power behind one of the first games to pioneer the concept of massively multiplayer. Having become involved with NC Soft and the incredibly popular Lineage, he's still making waves in the world of online role-playing. In person he's a charismatic fellow in blue jeans who just happens to have a lot of experience turning dreamy fantasies into working reality. I got a chance to speak with Garriot at E3 2002.

Bethesda Softworks gets the prestigious honor of gracing the Xbox with its first RPG. Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind is a great start for the system, and a wonderful example of how cool RPGs can be. Eschewing the Japanese tradition, Morrowind should throw many console gamers for a loop in the best possible way. Click here.

During the Nintendo press conference at E3, my mind began to wander somewhere that I'm sure they never intended; I began to think about? my mother. It all started during a promotional commercial for their new title, Animal Crossing, in which we see several seconds of humorous footage where a crazed-looking mother has stolen her child's GBA and is sitting at the kitchen table playing while her child attempts to wrest it from her grasp. I couldn't help but recall the stolen hours that my mother had spent on games such as Space Invaders and Legend of Zelda, Tomb Raider and Riven. These were seemingly decadent hours that I'm sure my father thought could have been spent more productively. But as I remember, her gaming was no less earnest than that of her offspring, and I believe she had no less (dare I say it?) fun.

Jason loves his Nintendo Gamecube. And after a year of meager (to say the least) releases for the system, the Gamecube finally looks to be coming into its own. The new outlook for the system is all about The Nintendo Difference, and Jason would like to have a word with you about this difference. Get some hardcore, uncensored opinion -- click.

We saw the guys from WomenGamers.com at E3. Just the guys. We had two women with us on GF! staff, Sarah and Monica, and each year we\'ve noticed more and more women at the show who aren\'t there to sucker guys who haven\'t seen the sun since 1994 to take their photo. But anyone with a sister or mom knows that women dig videogames. Still, women are not quite fully integrated into the gaming world, and Monica has some thoughts about that in her editorial, What Women Want (From Gaming). You really need to read it. Click here.

Every day I get a ton of email asking me which console system to purchase. My stock response is \"All of them,\" but that isn\'t satisfying for most folks. So in the interest of public service, here\'s my answer to you question: Which Console Should I Buy?

About a dozen times a day I get an email asking me which console someone should buy. A complete stranger expects me to be able to tell them right off the cuff where to put their $200. I feel a lot of responsibility to our readers, so I often write long letters asking what games they like, who the console is for, etc. (I do get a lot of letters from moms and dads asking which console system to purchase for their children.) Every year at the Electronic Entertainment Expo we get to see the lay of the land, and I was hoping that a clear answer to the quandry of which console to invest in would manifest itself. It's both good and bad that there is still no clear winner in the console wars.

All the boothbabes, mascots, gratuitous game displays, and goofy GamesFirst! correspondents you could ever hope for are right here in our E3 Photo Gallery 2002. We\'ve got all the glory of the world\'s biggest videogame exposition packed into these pages. Click here to view the gallery.

With all of the different console manufacturers launching their online components this year, it can be tough to sort it all out. So I put together Back to the Front: The Console Wars Go Online to outline the facts and offer up some analysis. See what you think.

One of the ubiquitous topics of E3 this year was online gaming. Specifically, online gaming for consoles was in the air and not since Sega announced SegaNet has there been more interest in the topic. Of course, SegaNet taught us quite a few things  most importantly that it is possible and enjoyable to play console titles online. It also taught us that a lot can be done with a 56.6 Kb connection and that it is essential to allow groups of local players to take on groups of remote players. SegaNet gave us so much, and many of us Dreamcast fanboys felt more than a twinge of sadness at the death of the system, which didn't wither into old age, but was rather sacrificed for the greater good of the parent company. I can picture the Dreamcast kneeling before a row of Sega execs, knife poised at his chest, "I am sorry I have failed to bring Sega out of the pit it had dug well before I was conceived. Forgiveness, please?"

Strategy First will bring us a potentially revolutionary deep space RTS this fall. O.R.B. puts you in control of huge space armadas and interstellar action has never been so accurately reproduced. Accurate physics offer new tactics to exploit and the fully 3D galaxy is just beautiful. Click here for more.

Although they sounded intriguing, it wasn't the martinis and massages that lured me into the WildTangent room at E3. As a member of the media, the invites for drinks were as free flowing as T-shirts and temporary tattoos for the normal E3 attendee. Yet, as I was winding my way through the mayhem that is E3, I was surprised to see a rather large woman in a purple shirt handing out gamedisks. With quasi-anorexic booth babes the norm in this venue, I was surprised to note that all of the WildTangent women (as that's who they were) were larger-than-life and exceptionally friendly. I wondered, "Who would be so bold as to flaut tradition and hire large, fully clothed women to entice players to check out a booth?" The answer turned out to be a company that has used just such divergent thinking in all areas of their marketing: WildTangent.

It's not unusual for new trends to emerge at each annual Electronics Entertainment Exposition. Video games represent a relatively young but now thriving and dynamic industry that has been steadily gaining market share in the entertainment sector. In 2001, video game sales increased 43% to some $9.4 billion, approaching the music business and surpassing box office revenues. Growing numbers of people are tuning out, preferring to turn on their PlayStation 2s, Nintendo GameCubes, Microsoft Xboxes, and PCs.

In PC Gaming by Design, our man Paul takes a look at a PC gaming trend that seems to be amping up for the coming year. Certainly mods and modders have been around for years, but the latest crop of PC titles take great pains to give players the chance to get in on designing their own content. Get the skinny on this trend here.

What company hires giant Samoans to hand out E3 swag rather than the standard 38-18-32 booth babe? WildTangent, a company with a unique take on more than just the distribution of their promotional materials. These games are worth checking out, and most of them are free. Click!